Err-umm, sums not good at, but here goes. Jackie Symons wrote from Prees Village Stores with a big moan about “Coke’s proposed withdrawal of the 2ltr bottle from the convenience sector, and replacement with the 1.5ltr (based, of course, on ‘extensive research’) which raises more questions than it answers”.
She asks: “Will Tesco/Sainsbury’s et al be restricted to this size for their convenience format stores? And how come this brave new world bottle is already being discounted to £1 in my local Sainsbury’s?”
She points out that, more and more, convenience stores are being used as a test bed for the launch of new products.
“Reps push us to stock the new lines and give away the old - presumably so they can legitimately claim to have ‘sold’ X-Y-Z new lines, even though in reality we took them as effectively free stock and discounted them accordingly.”
Her radical suggestion is that c-stores should have a ‘boycott brands’ fortnight, where they replace all the overpriced sugared waters and lollies with cash and carry equivalents.
“A little concerted action by the convenience sector might get us the sort of deals routinely lavished on the supermarkets.
“After all, if Booker can sell a 2ltr bottle of pop for less than 50p and a Belgian chocolate-coated Magnum equivalent at 60p, how do Coke/Wall’s justify their price tags?”
I wrote back asking Jackie if she was, in fact, referring to the 1.75ltr that Coke launched a few months ago as ‘ideal for c-stores’ as it was a lower price and lighter for shoppers to carry on foot?
She replied: “I double-checked and the ‘on offer’ one was 1.5ltr, but it doesn’t invalidate the point - if a customer can get three litres for £2 in Sainsbury’s, why buy a 1.75ltr bottle from me for a similar price?
“Also, why bother with a new bottle size at all, unless this allows CCE to heavily discount 1.5ltr while piously claiming they don’t allow supermarkets to discount the 1.75ltr?”
Over to you Coke, will be happy to print your comments.
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